NEOS Investment Management LLC Grows Position in Morgan Stanley $MS

NEOS Investment Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) by 12.3% in the second quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 194,970 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 21,350 shares during the period. NEOS Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Morgan Stanley were worth $40,757,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of MS. Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc. bought a new stake in Morgan Stanley in the 2nd quarter valued at $78,825,883,310. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Morgan Stanley during the 4th quarter valued at about $2,736,648,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp purchased a new position in shares of Morgan Stanley during the second quarter valued at about $2,040,227,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its position in shares of Morgan Stanley by 29.1% during the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 14,917,776 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,648,354,000 after purchasing an additional 3,364,080 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Corient Private Wealth LLC grew its position in shares of Morgan Stanley by 142.4% during the fourth quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC now owns 3,122,060 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $511,723,000 after purchasing an additional 1,833,844 shares in the last quarter. 84.19% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on the company. Rothschild & Co Redburn boosted their target price on Morgan Stanley from $183.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, June 25th. Dbs Bank raised their price target on Morgan Stanley from $185.00 to $220.00 in a report on Thursday, May 7th. Jefferies Financial Group raised Morgan Stanley from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 7th. Evercore reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Morgan Stanley in a report on Monday, July 6th. Finally, UBS Group increased their target price on Morgan Stanley from $255.00 to $260.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, August 3rd. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twelve have given a Buy rating, ten have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $224.75.

Morgan Stanley Trading Up 2.6%

Shares of MS stock opened at $217.30 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $342.75 billion, a PE ratio of 17.57, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.50 and a beta of 1.21. Morgan Stanley has a 1 year low of $146.29 and a 1 year high of $232.25. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $215.61 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $196.53. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.65, a current ratio of 0.79 and a quick ratio of 0.79.

Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, July 15th. The financial services provider reported $3.46 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.89 by $0.57. The firm had revenue of $21.35 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $19.67 billion. Morgan Stanley had a return on equity of 19.31% and a net margin of 15.65%.The company’s quarterly revenue was up 27.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $2.13 EPS. Research analysts predict that Morgan Stanley will post 12.79 earnings per share for the current year.

Morgan Stanley announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock buyback plan on Wednesday, June 24th that permits the company to repurchase $20.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the financial services provider to buy up to 5.6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are typically an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Morgan Stanley Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 14th. Investors of record on Friday, July 31st were given a $1.15 dividend. This is a boost from Morgan Stanley’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.00. This represents a $4.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.1%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, July 31st. Morgan Stanley’s dividend payout ratio is 37.19%.

Key Stories Impacting Morgan Stanley

Here are the key news stories impacting Morgan Stanley this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Investors are favoring major banks on the view that higher rates could support net interest income and financial-sector earnings. Morgan Stanley’s strong recent results— including a quarterly EPS beat, 27.1% year-over-year revenue growth and 19.3% return on equity—provide additional fundamental support. Expectations of Rising Rates and Worries About AI Have Investors Piling Into Big Bank Stocks
• Positive Sentiment: Morgan Stanley’s research franchise remains active, including a bullish view on Robinhood, Galaxy Digital and selected AI-related companies. Such calls may reinforce the firm’s market visibility and support expectations for continued trading, advisory and wealth-management activity. Robinhood Markets Stock Opinions on Analyst Upgrades and Blockchain Growth
• Neutral Sentiment: Morgan Stanley will host its Laguna and Global Healthcare conferences, featuring companies including Southwest Airlines, Eaton, Attovia, EyePoint and Zoetis. The events support client engagement and deal flow but do not represent a direct change to MS’s financial outlook.
• Neutral Sentiment: Recent filings show Morgan Stanley increased its institutional position in Cipher Digital and Amwell while reducing its stake in CXM and EyePoint. These portfolio changes are not material catalysts for Morgan Stanley’s stock and may reflect client or investment-management activity.
• Negative Sentiment: Higher-rate expectations can also weigh on bond valuations and raise funding costs, while continued technology-sector volatility could hurt market sentiment and reduce risk-taking across parts of Morgan Stanley’s trading and investment-banking businesses. Morgan Stanley Says U.S. Debt Fears Miss Bigger Story

Morgan Stanley Profile

Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) is a global financial services firm headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1935 by Henry S. Morgan and Harold Stanley, the company provides a broad range of investment banking, securities, wealth management and investment management services to corporations, governments, institutions and individual investors. Leadership has been guided by a senior executive team and board of directors; James P. Gorman has served as the company’s chief executive and chairman in recent years.

The firm’s primary business activities are organized around three principal businesses: Institutional Securities, Wealth Management and Investment Management.